


Lure

by LumaBoop



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Magic, Thank you twitter, Twitter influenced, mermaid au, there is no wrong way to love a merman
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-08
Updated: 2017-05-08
Packaged: 2018-10-29 08:30:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,415
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10850259
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LumaBoop/pseuds/LumaBoop
Summary: Noctis had almost forgotten he had this black chocobo lure. What did it attract again?"Hnm. Only one way to find out." he smiled, eager and none the wiser.





	Lure

"Noctis?! Noctis, are you alright...?!"

 

"I'm fine… _stop,_ you're crushing me…"

 

Regis sighed and stroked back the wet tuff of hair from his son's forehead as Noctis coughed over his shoulder and recovered more of that brash wit of his. He bounced him in his arms and walked away from the deck and rocks, grateful that his son's tumble into the seas was just that, an accident. An accident and not the tragedy he'd just begun to believe it to be.

 

It was odd though. Noctis had flailed and struggled in the water, then sank straight down, as if tugged. After calling Clarus from beyond to come assist, he'd shoved off his jacket and dove in after him, watching as his son was sucked deeper and farther away from him into the dark. He'd reached out to him, only to scream into the muting waters, bubbles popping in his face, as Noctis loss consciousness.

 

Regis had pulled himself out with Clarus' help, and stared out into the sea that had stolen his son. Barely five minutes later, Regis having nearly broken into tears, Noctis was… _pushed_ out of the water and onto the rocks a few yards away. Pushed, because the waves hadn't crashed him back to shore, nor had Noctis flailed and pulled himself out.

 

 _Something_ had moved against the water and crested an unconscious Noctis gently upon the shore.

 

"Let us get you both back to town before you fall ill." Clarus declared, and Regis allowed himself to be guided back to their lodgings, clutching his, now asleep, son.

 

When tending to Noctis, the king noticed something peculiar in his pocket, right next to the Carbuncle charm he'd given him a while ago. It was touched with a bit of grime, but otherwise, it was a very strange and beautiful fishing lure. Nothing he'd ever bought for Clarus, and nothing Noctis had ever asked for to add to his growing tackle box.

 

"A… black chocobo?" Regis mused over the item, rubbing his thumb over to press the grime off. Yes, there it was-- black beak and shiny black eye and faux feathers. It was antique in its impeccable craftsmanship, as if there was only one in the world like it, and never meant for mass production. Perhaps his mischievous boy had picked it up when he wasn't look before the event at the docks. Treasures from days past littered Eos' grounds--- it wasn't a stretch that Noctis had found himself a secret trinket.

 

The king smiled and tucked the chocobo lure back into his son's pocket with Carbuncle. The more luck, the better.

\---

 

"Nmm. Well, let's see what's out there." Noctis grinned and took a seat on the edge of the dock. He wrapped the chocobo lure  to the hook, then flicked his wrist with skill to cast the lure out with a pleasant whizz of the line.

 

 _Ploop_!

 

It was night time, and he, for once, couldn't sleep. So, he snuck away from camp for a bit of fishing, just to think by himself. And if he didn't catch anything, the zen he often went into would lull him into peace and exhaustion.

 

While reeling the line in, slowly and irregularly, Noctis remembered offhandedly that these waters were connected to the same sea that he'd fallen into that day. Maybe the black chocobo would catch something then. He peered out in the horizon--- no movement or sound. There were fish, but they weren't buying the black chocobo.

 

He reeled all the way in, then flicked his wrist again to cast the line. Slowly and irregularly.

 

Noctis sighed when he pulled in a third, then a fourth, time. Perhaps something would nibble if it was calm. So, after another toss, Noctis did not reel in, and leaned back on his arms, exhaling.

 

"Getting sleepy…" Which had been his aim, but he was still a bit disappointed. Why was he holding onto this lure if it wasn't any good? Even if it was pretty fancy. A few more moments surrounded by the peaceful nighttime ambiance of nature, and the mindset Noctis knew would come over him started to encroach. He cracked his jaws in a satisfyingly long yawn.

 

"Alright… time for bed." Noctis reeled in, then gapped, body going stiff when his rod bowed dangerously.

 

He couldn't move his reel.

 

Had the hook and lure sunk and gotten caught on something? He gave his rod a tug to try and dislodge the lure, but he still could not reel. He could cut the line, but the lure was sentimental. He would hate to lose it. Or lose a lure in general. That was just the fucking worst.

 

"C'mon… c'mon c'mon…" Noctis kept tugging, jerking from different angles, but nothing. "Damnit… Ack!!"

 

Suddenly the line whizzed. It whizzed with a ferocity of a huge catch running off with it. "No no fuck!" Noctis grabbed his reel handle to stop the movement, but whatever had been caught was powerful. Way more powerful than even the Grouper. His rod creaked from the pressure of the catch swimming away and his stopping power.

 

Forget his line breaking, his rod was threatening to crack. Six, Noctis felt himself about to be dragged back into the water by the force of this. He had stood up and dug in his heels into the space between deck boards to keep from top falling into the dark depths. Noctis swallowed thickly, sweating, balancing the line between a snapped rod, and snapped line, and a catch about to escape with his lure.

 

And then, Noctis cried out as he fell backwards, ass meeting warped wood as his line suddenly went slack. He sucked his teeth and slumped, feeling his defeat, and started to reel in the line, fully expecting it to be without a hook and black chocobo lure.

 

But there, glimmering under his flashlight, was the sheen of the black chocobo. "Wha the…?" Noctis  stared at the lure as if it simply weren't real, then thought that, maybe, it was like his Bahamut lure. Maybe it always came back. But then, what had been the thing behind that battle?

 

Noctis stared out into the water, glaring, squinting, trying to pick up any hint to the creature responsible.

 

"You certainly grew up into a stunning young man… "

 

Noctis merely tripped over his own feet when he twirled and snapped his head to his left. There, tucked in a small shadow created by his flashlight's presence, was, a… man, or so it seemed.  A man was hanging off the side of the deck, strong arms crossed underneath his chin as eyes of black and yellow peered at him through a wavy curtain of dark colored hair. The rest of his body from the waist down was submerged.

 

Skinny dipper perhaps?  But Noctis hadn't heard any tell signs of another person in the area-- a splash of a diver, or the cutting of water by arms and legs. It was dead quiet tonight away from demon infested roads. He would have heard a skinny dipper (then would have cursed the Six and gave up fishing with the noise having definitely scared off any fish).

 

And last time Noctis checked, people did not have… fins for ears. Those… those were _fins_. Wow, perhaps he had nodded off at the deck and was currently dreaming up this man fish.

 

Noctis poked himself with the fishing hook. Nope. Still awake.

 

The man fish chuckled, and the rolling octave of it caused heat to involuntarily curl in Noctis' core, vibrating outwards to his fingers and toes. "I assure you, you are not dreaming."

 

"What… what are you?"

 

"My kind have earned many names, but from you, the name 'Ardyn' will do."

 

"Ah... Ardyn," Noctis tried the name out before pouting a bit. "Fine. But _what_ are you?" He repeated.

 

A thick splash of bubbling water sounded, as if something heavy had been lifted out. Noctis peered over and beside Ardyn was a… a tail? A dark appendage of red and black and purple scales were now lifted up from the water, waving and shifting, and definitely connected to this man resting on the deck. The fins were like that of a fan bluegill fish-- long, flowy, and partially see-through. The tail and fins sparkled, reflecting those colors beautifully like moonlight off a still lake.

 

Monstrous as this man was, he was also gorgeous.

 

"Your kind refer to me as a demon. But I am, pure and simple, a mer."

**Author's Note:**

> Because [ArdynTrash](https://twitter.com/ArdynTrash/status/861307936446050308)
> 
> Go give them your love on twitter!  
> Thank you Noctoleptic for the beta'ing!


End file.
